Valleyfest celebration growing

The annual Valleyfest celebration went well, even after attendance dropped on Sunday thanks to the rainy weather. A few events were canceled or trimmed because of a lack of sponsors.

Event director Peggy Doering was sad to see the bad weather roll in on Sunday.

“It was a real dramatic shift from Saturday,” she said. “Friday night was beautiful.”

Doering said she doesn’t have an exact attendance number.

“It felt bigger than last year,” she said.

The first ever Balloons Over Valleyfest drew a crowd early Saturday morning, but the flights planned for Saturday night and Sunday morning were canceled because of the weather. The dog show on Sunday, a new addition, went well, Doering said.

“We had beautiful breeds of dogs there that I had never seen before,” she said. “It was Spokane Valley’s version of the Westminster dog show.”

Organizers cancelled the movies in the park at the last minute after a sponsor backed out. But the parade Friday night was a huge success, featuring the three Valley school superintendents as grand marshals. The parade had 115 entries “that we knew about. There were some things that just kind of showed up at the parade route,” Doering said.

Doering is already looking ahead to next year, with plans to make the celebration bigger and better.

“We’re already fundraising for next year.”